Part 1: Chapter 8

1) Do party members ever spend time alone?  Explain.

It is considered unorthodox to be alone, because when one is alone they tend to think a lot more, and ponder ideas. The Party is not a fan of thinking, so it is abnormal to loiter around or be alone.
 
2) What is “ownlife”?

Ownlife is the enjoyment of being by yourself, which the Party will see as very suspicious.

3) What is a “steamer”?

A steamer is the prole term for a rocket. The proles refer to it when it hits nearby and explodes.

4) What is Winston wearing that makes him stand out to the proles?

Winston is wearing his blue coveralls, which makes him stand out as a Party member to the proles.

5) What does Winston do to the human hand he finds in the gutter? What does this say about Winton’s previous experiences?

Winston kicks the hand away into the gutter, after only a slight bit of disgust towards it. This action makes it seem as though this was a usual occurrence for Winston to have, as if this is a common occurrence and Winston in desensitized to this.

6) How do proles feel about the Lottery? What is the truth about the Lottery?

The proles spend a lot of time hoping to win the lottery, when in reality the grand prize is not worth much, and any big prizes were awarded to imaginary people. The Lottery's main purpose is to keep the prole's minds busy and entertained, so they don't take notice of the Party's injustices.

7) Why does Winston feel that “it could only be a prole” (p.90) who could give a “truthful account of conditions in the early part of the century”?

Winston feels like this because everyone who is a member of the Party is already brainwashed or too afraid to tell him anything of the past. However, the proles could have the answers he wants because they haven't been forced to forget a life before the Revolution.

8) What question does Winston ask the man in the bar? What does Winston conclude at the end of the conversation with the man?

Winston asks the man about life before the Revolution, and if he felt more free than he does now. Winston finds that this man's memory is fleeting, as would most people who lived before the Revolution. Because of this answer, Winston concludes that the people who did live before the Revolution were very likely to not remember much of their past.

9) Describe the glass object Winston buys in the antique shop. (p99) Why is it “doubly attractive”?

Winston buys a glass paperweight with a piece of coral inside it. He feels that it is 'doubly attractive' because it is useless, yet still beautiful. This sort of object is something members of the Party rarely come across, as everything they use has a purpose, and such items as this are considered suspicious.
 
10) What is the name of the owner of the antique shop?

Mr. Charrington is the owner of the antique shop and he is widowed.

11) When Winston runs into a female party member, what does he first consider doing and why does he change his mind?

  Winston considers killing the girl because he feels threatened by her, but then decides not to because it would require too much effort.

Part 1: Chapter 7

1) Why does Winston state that “If there was hope, it must lie with the proles.”

He recognizes that Party members are for the most part brainwashed by the Party, or too afraid to pose a threat against them. He sees the way the proles act, how they're allowed to do things he's not, they have less rules. He sees that though they are less educated, they have the numbers to go up against the Party, and make things right.

2) How are the proles presented in the novel? What kind of people are they? How are they treated differently from the Inner and Outer Party and why?

The proles remind me of the people you see in movies that live in the Southern places, they seem to stick to the traditional ways of living, as opposed to following the strict rules of the Party. They have more emotions, and more friends to be with. They may be looked down upon by Party members, but in my opinion they live a life of freedom, despite the lack of food and resources. Inner and Outer Party members are forced to do what Big Brother wants by strict unspoken rules and socially acceptable and unacceptable expectations. The proles are free to feel love, happiness, sadness, passion and more whereas the Party members can't.

3) How does the Party represent capitalists before the Revolution?

The Party is basically the same as the capitalists and they are no better to the people than the capitalists were. The capitalists only cared for themselves and let the people below them starve. This is similar to the Party, where they lack food so they let proles starve and others just get by. The Party and the capitalists only think about how they can treat themselves, except the Party just doesn't want to admit that they're as bad as the capitalists were.

4) Who is Big Brother, Goldstein, Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford? What is their story?

Big Brother is the dictator of Oceania, he is harsh and ruthless, and constantly lies to his citizens. Goldstein is a man who Big Brother puts all the blame on. During the Revolution, Goldstein, Aaronson, Rutherford and Jones were the only surviving counter-revolutionaries. Goldstein had disappeared, and only Aaronson, Rutherford and Jones were left. The three came and went, leaving people guessing whether they were dead or alive. They had been arrested, but when they got in trouble they promised to be good to the Party so they got released. They soon started conspiring against the Party, so they were executed. 

5) What is the Chestnut Tree Café?

The Chestnut Tree Cafe is is a small cafe where Winston sees the three men at a table nearby. There was not many people there and he remembers watching them motionless and not talking, and soon after he saw them they were executed.

6) What is the significance of the photograph found by Winston (p.81)?

It is a photograph which includes Jones, Rutherford and Aaronson. He sees it as evidence against the Party, and he believes that if it could be published to the masses, it could blow up the Party.

7) What does Winston do with the photograph?

Once he realizes what it is, he promptly covers it up.
 
8) How does Winston feel about O’brien?

Winston feels that O'Brien and him are on the same page, both have similar feelings towards the Party, and he feels like he could trust O'Brien. He writes his diary to O'Brien.
 
9) Choose one or two lines that attracted your attention. Discuss why.

" Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows," is written by Winston in his diary. It is a phrase against doublethink, meaning that if the people could be allowed to know something is true, without having to 'doublethink' it they would have a much easier time living, and maybe even realize what is wrong with their world.

"It was like a single equation with two unknowns," gives the idea that citizens are caged in this constant battle of confusion brought upon them by the Party.

Part 1: Chapter 6

Part 1: Chapter 6

1. The Party believes that marriage is a bond between people who want to have children. Sex is also seen as something for only producing a child, the most impressionable citizens for the Party. 

2. The Junior Anti-Sex League is a group of young women who wear red sashes and are completely against sex. This is beneficial to the Party, because sex (hopefully in most cases) is intimate, and when you are intimate with someone you trust them, which may lead to discussions against the Party.

3. Artsem is artificial insemination, a fake thing that keeps the hope for women to reproduce without sex. Supposedly they will impregnate you artificially, so women have no use for sex anymore.

4. Winston and Katharine were distant from each other, and after they didn't have a child they separated. Katherine stayed true to the Party's ideals about sex, and was very dispassionate when they did have intercourse, which in Katharine's mind was solely for the purpose of procreation and "(their) duty to the Party."

5. "He saw himself ...the thought of Katharine's white body, frozen forever by the hypnotic power of the Party," shows the way that the Party's ideals had basically taken away this woman's passion and feelings of any love. 

"Only the proles used scent. In his mind the smell of it was inextricably mixed up with fornication," gives you the idea that proles have a very different view of sexuality. They are more slack with the Party's idea of acceptable sexual relations.

Part 1: Chapter 5

1. Syme also works in the Ministry of Truth, but he works on rewriting and editing the Newspeak dictionary as a philologist in the Research Department. His job is essence is to narrow down language, making overall less words. Winston calls him venomously orthodox, because Syme is dangerously fascinated in the destruction of thought, and has hopes for a future without thought.

2. Newspeak is the language that Party uses in order to make the other Party members less capable of thoughtcrime, by making the dictionary smaller and smaller, and taking away describing words and replacing them with "-er" or "-est". Syme thinks his work on the Newspeak dictionary is art, he loves the destruction of words.

3. A thoughtcrime is when someone makes a statement or does something (possibly by accident) that is against any part of the Party.

4. Oldspeak is basically what we readers speak. It has a lot more words than Newspeak, so there are a lot more ways to express yourself. Oldspeak sounds smarter and is smarter, you could convince and persuade people using Oldspeak because of its large number of different words that sound much more professional than "doubleplusgood." Getting rid of Oldspeak makes independent thought much harder, when you don't have many words to think about.

5. Syme believes that orthodoxy is unconsciousness or not thinking, and that is why he loves to destroy words. By destroying words, you don't need to think much about what you will say because you will only have a few words to choose from.

6. Winston thinks Syme is too intelligent and will be vaporized, and Winston fears that Syme speaks too much of his mind, and the Party does not favour that kind of behaviour. 

7. Parsons is a firm believer in the Party, and though he was sorry for Winston that his son had shot at him with a catapult, he was proud of their keenness and passion for the Spies. Parsons is definitely that man who works many hours and loves his job, and is in a higher rank than many. He's a family man, and I personally  would say he is like Stan Smith of 'American Dad'. Proud to be working for the government. 

8. The statistics on the tele screens will say thing one day, contradict it the next, and nobody in their right mind is to call them on it. For example at one point they said there was an increase in the chocolate ration, but the previous weeks ration was larger than the announced portion. Also, the Party says that Oceania is plentiful and resourceful, when in reality Winston has to specially save razorblades, and others use the same ones for weeks because razor blades are the current item that the Party cannot produce at that time.

9. Facecrime is when your facial expression leads to a belief that you are against something of the Party. It may be rolling your eyes, or sighing at a statement, or maybe being to happy or too sad will set them off.

10. " Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller," is spoke by Syme and shows his true love for cutting down language, and getting rid of independent thought. It's quite creepy to me, his desire for that to be his future.

"We're cutting the language down to the bone," is also told by Syme to Winston, and it's an upsetting idea that such beautiful words will no longer be used and to use words that the Dictionary doesn't accept will be considered abnormal.

Part 1: Chapter 4

1. Winston works in the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth, which specializes in education and entertainment. Specifically, Winston's job was to recreate and omit parts of any document that contradicts the Party. For example, he had to rewrite an article in which Big Brother mentioned war between Oceania and Eastasia, when at that present time he was talking about war with Eurasia and saying that Oceania was never at war with Eastasia. Winston had to take this part of the article and rewrite it in the Party and Big Brother's favor.

2. In this statement he was mentioning how the Party erases the past and rewrites it as they want it to be. Basically, they don't even just remake it once, but anytime that the past seems to contradict the Party they redo it, piling lie after lie on top of each other.

3. Vaporization is worse than death. It is not only execution, but once you are dead, they completely erase you from everything. An 'unperson' is the person who has been vaporized, as they no longer exist, and according to any records, they never existed.

4. The Records Department has a number of sub-sections, it was a very large department. They had print shops and typographers for faking photographs. They made tele-programmes, recalled books and periodicals, correct documents and burned the originals, and coordinated the effort to do all these said jobs.

5. The proles make up 85% of the citizens, and they are the lowest class. They are not as educated as the Outer and Inner Party, and they don't associate with them. To be in the prole parts of town is considered unorthdox. However, Winston believes the proles to be the only hope to regain a good government with good ethics and such.

6.  A speakwrite is an instrument that Party members use for making notes or record information through speaking into a device in place of using a pen or pencil, because it is much faster this way. The Ministry of Truth uses these often.

7. Comrade Ogilivy is an imaginary person that Winston makes up to take the place of Comrade Withers, who was vapourized, but part of a document. Ogilvy is made to be the perfect Party member, he doesn't drink or smoke, is celibate, and a firm believer in the Party's virtues. Ogilvy was a war hero and represented what every citizen should be (according to the Party). Ogilvy represents the fact that one person may be taken completely out of history, but another can be imagined and put in his spot in an instant.

8. "The reporting...is extremely unsatisfactory and makes references to non-existent persons." Caught my eye because it simply sounds strange and messed up, to have a non-existent person.
"Perhaps Big Brother was merely trying to get rid of a too-popular subordinate," was strange because of the way it portrays Big Brothers odd ideas.

Part 1: Chapter 3

1. I believe that George Orwell put these ideas together because Shakespeare and his work were what Winston used to represent the past. Shakespeare's work was all very thought provoking, and filled with various emotions. These emotions that he wrote of were unheard of in Winston's world, the people could not feel the way Shakespeare's characters felt. It is almost ironic though, that Winston thought tragedy was a thing of the past, when really to us reading this novel, his world is very tragic.


2. Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia are at war. Big Brother wants the people of Oceania to believe that the other countries are the cause for their misfortunes, and to blame them for anything bad, even though Oceania is the best country according to Big Brother and the Party.
3. Doublethink is the idea of thinking one thing and believing it to be true, but also believing the opposite to be true. It is a confusion that happens when you believe in one thing, but authority tells and convinces you otherwise. Today, as we talked about in class, many fast food restaurants are trying to get people to believe that they are a healthy option, even though we almost all know that to be very wrong.

4. The Party tells the people many lies to cover up for when they are wrong. A lie/ cover-up that they have is that when the Party messes up, or refers to something that is no longer true, any documents or records of that have to be sent in to Winston's work, where they take it out or replace the mistake. Each of the Party's slogans is a lie in itself as well.


5. 'The next moment he was doubled up by a violent coughing fit which nearly always attacked him soon after waking up,' is interesting because it sublty points out the lack of healthcare he recieves, but at the same time, the Party promotes health by making people participate in the Physical Jerks.


'-if all records told the same tale- then the lie passed into history and became truth,' is interesting because it talks about the way the Party uses lies and cover ups in media to make itself look good.

Part 1: Chapter 2

1. Mrs. Parsons seems to live a dreary, fearful life. She isn't abnormal, but her children pose the constant threat of reporting her to the Thought Police. Her husband is even into the Party's ways of being, so she is constantly in fear. 2. Her children are being trained as spies, and when Winston enters their home, they act aggressively towards him, and pretend he is a bad guy. Mrs. Parsons is nervous because many children in 1984 turned their parents in, and it was encouraged in their education to do so, if their parents were against the Party. 3. A child hero is a child who turns their parents in, or reports someone else. They are congratulated for this. 4. When Winston says this, it is about someone who has leaked some sort of clue to the Party that they are not quite happy with them, and Winston is referring to the fact that they will be vaporized. The Party tends to vaporize anyone who seems even slightly unhappy with or against the Party's wishes. To vaporize is not only just to kill them, but completely erase them from the past. It is to make it so that they never existed. The Party can make up many reasons for vaporizing people, so the person Winston referred to could really be vaporize for any reason. 5. O'Brien is a man that works with Winston, and Winston has exchanged glances with him and believes that they are on the same page in their belief that the Party is wrong to do what they are doing. He feels strongly that O'Brien is an ally, and someone he could possibly trust. 6. 'Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy's demeanor, that it was not altogether a game,' and 'It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gambolling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters,” are both interesting to me because it pints out that even though these are children, the are impressionable and a big threat to anyone. 7. This movement is similar to the Youth League, because they both consisted of children being made to believe the governments virtues, and they were more focused on fighting for their cause than anything else. These children would turn in family if they had to, and reported anyone who was against their leaders beliefs. 8. The White Rose was a group of university students and professor that were against the Nazis. They felt that the way they treated Jews was unethical and disgusting, and spread word of their thoughts by graffiti and leaflets. They wanted to bring awareness to how cruel the people truly were for supporting and joining the Nazis.